Saturday, January 07, 2012

Religious preference and nihilism

The MIDUS Study asked participants if they agree that they have a sense of direction and purpose in life. Answers ranged from "strongly agree" (1) to "strongly disagree (7). Here are the means by religious preference (sample size = 3,978):

Lower levels of nihilism are associated with having a religious affiliation and especially with belonging to a more conservative faith. For example, the gap between those with no religious preference and Jehovah's Witnesses is more than sixth-tenths of a standard deviation--a fairly large difference.

10 comments:

This is all explained by genetics. The tenets of the religion have nothing to do with this. People who are enthusiastic are more likely to join a religion where you have to go door-to-door. They'll then meet a spouse who's also enthusiastic about bothering people during dinner time.

Ron, I know. There is a difference between the religious belief questions in the GSS (do you believe in God, the bible, etc), and the church attendance question.

Smarter people are less likely to hold religious beliefs, but are more likely to go to church.

Half Sigma thinks this is because smarter people are more conformist. But more obviously going to church and going to school require similar kinds of self-discipline (getting up early on a weekend, sitting still for a boring, hour-long lecture, etc).

Half Sigma thinks this is because smarter people are more conformist. But more obviously going to church and going to school require similar kinds of self-discipline (getting up early on a weekend, sitting still for a boring, hour-long lecture, etc).

Intelligence does not particularly positively correlate with conscientiousness.

But I'd guess that intelligent people can find ways to get more out of the church experience and avoid the pain - "choosing" a church that isn't as boring or demanding, using it for networking, choosing a church that is tailored towards offering them psychological support and social status rather than one that imposes penalties and makes them feel depressed, &c.

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"I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be." ~ Lord Kelvin